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Brands that use Vine: five great vs. five bad examples

Twitter's Vine launched to much fanfare at the beginning of the year and brands have been quick to experiment with the video sharing tool to both promote their products and generally have a bit of fun.

Unfortunately too many brands seem to think that just because it’s a throwaway six-second clip they don’t have to put much effort into it, so the clips often end up looking quite messy and of poor quality.

Similarly the temptation is often to try and cram as much as you can into the short time frame, which can make it difficult to work out what's going on in the clip.

In my opinion, the best examples use a single continuous clip or motion capture so the viewer doesn't have to try and take in several different camera angles in just six seconds. I would suggest that unless there's a particuarly pressing need, Vines should be limited to around three of four different shots otherwise it can dilute the impact.

Furthermore, it's a good idea to mount the phone on something so that the video doesn't look too shaky.

So with this in mind, I've rounded up five good and bad examples of Vines shared by various brands. Admittedly not all the examples I've highlighted as being good are absolutely perfect, but I've explained my reasons for including them.

The clips in this post are shown as Gifs, but you can click on them to link to the original Vine...

Urban Outfitters

This Vine is great as it shows two cute dogs, and the only two absolute truths in marketing are that sex sells and people love to share content about animals.

Secondly it just has just two different clips in it, so it’s not painful on the eyes.

One minor problem is that they should have mounted the camera on something as it’s a tiny bit shaky, but really that’s being fussy.

Doritos

This is possibly my favourite example. The clip contains a single idea, but it’s incredibly creative and fun to watch.

Doritos is also one of the few brands that have made use of the fact that Vine records sound as well as video.

Finally, this clip ties into a competition so it serves a purpose beyond simply testing out Vine to see what it can do.

Next

While far from being a perfect example, I like the way Next has used stop motion to show off the products featured in its new ad campaign.

There are a few problems with the consistency of the lighting and the ripple effect at the end is too ambitious, but with a few tweaks it could have been great.

General Electric

General Electric has a brilliant social strategy, which you perhaps wouldn't expect from a utilities company, and is a prolific user of Vine.

This clip is a bit of fun to celebrate Pi Day – it’s an endless pie. Awesome.

Bacardi

Simple but effective, this Vine uses stop motion to show a lime rolling up to a bottle of Bacardi.

It’s a simple idea but it’s executed extremely well, which is exactly what Vine should be for.

And five bad examples...

Nascar

A Vine of Nascar teams gearing up for the big race, you say? That sounds interest.... Argh! My eyes!

Channel 4 Racing

A clip of the horses parading around before a race or six seconds of them in the blocks before sprinting off into the distance might work.

But trying to cram an entire race into one Vine is a bit too much, and I don’t feel this clip work very well.

General Electric

When you’re using Vine as often as General Electric does it’s sadly inevitable that you’ll eventually come up with a stinker.

This Vine was posted on National Inventors Day to thank everyone who invented the Harlem Shake.

To be fair the footage isn’t too bad, but for it to be a real Harlem Shake it obviously needs the music as well. But listening to this Vine with the sound on is a major disappointment...

Wolverine

I really like the idea behind this ad for the new Wolverine movie, as well as the fact that they’ve synced six seconds of music over the top.

But in my opinion they’ve tried to include too many clips, so in the end it’s a bit of a mess and difficult to follow.

It would have been preferable to find two or three interesting moments from the film that whet the viewer’s appetite and encourage them to find out more, rather than just inducing a headache.

American Apparel

American Apparel fell into a common trap with this Vine – too much content, too little time.

I think it's great to see brands embracing Vine, but totally agree with your comments about what makes a good (or bad) Vine.

Brands need to be really careful that they don't just jump on the Vine bandwagon and create a shoddy video that is likely to do more harm than good. 6 seconds doesn't seem like a lot of time, but people tend to make up their minds very quickly so creativity and high production values are key for brands.

over 4 years ago

Lauren

Thanks for the array of examples, hadn't seen all of these. Personally, I think handheld effects e.g. slight shaking can be endearing, versus Oscar-quality production. It demonstrates the content has been produced by a normal person and will help smaller brands which don't have a huge budget. Vine is for short, homemade content after all!

over 4 years ago

Dave Lowe, Digital Marketing Consultant at First Touch

Although I agree on the whole with the good/bad reviews, I wholeheartedly disagree with the mounting of a phone to produce the 'perfect' footage. Vine is essentially a phone app to grab six seconds of video - whilst the content can be well thought out beforehand, it's use is meant for phones held by hand.

For more 'professional' video production we have the likes of YouTube and Vimeo out there. Vine is very good for what it is and is meant to be digested by people using mobile on the move. I look forward to more reviews of good/bad examples and using it more ourselves as a professional sports club.

over 4 years ago

Lenka Istvanova, Consultant at Seven League

Great post David! Thanks for sharing these examples; I've seen some great campaigns with Vine (e.g. Asos) but as you mentioned - companies need to understand that they have only 6 seconds to express their message in n interesting way. I think the preparation and quality is the key here. Less content is much better when it comes to Vine.

Great post and its the first I've seen on recommendations (with examples) of what makes a good or bad Vine post for brands. I think as its new the earned media opportunities through buzz is still attractive and as we continue to experiment with the technology I think we will begin to find more useful ways for using Vine in our existing ways of communicating.

What I'm currently trying to push with a client of ours here and where I see opportunities for other brands such as B&Q / Best Buy is using Vine for customer care e.g. how to videos and product demos.

There's a lot of negativity about Vine and for now I get it. I just think we're only beginning to find our feet. Like the telephone, electric guitar and cinema it takes time before we find the real value in the technology we create.

@SheaWarnes

over 4 years ago

Tom Howlett, Digital Marketing Executive at Koozai

Always interested in seeing different examples of what has come out of Vine (I admit that I haven't spent much time exploring the platform). I was unsure how brands would take to the platform, but it seems as though it has potential with the variation seen above.

It's difficult to imagine a Vine image going 'viral', but I guess we will have to see what else comes out in the near future.

Thanks for show the good vs bad example of Vine video executions, its useful to not how times subtlety can be a key way to engage and make a more pleasurable experience for end user or to make it more a viral pleasing piece of content to share.

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